Policy & Strategy

Policy and Strategy

Afghanistan is exposed to multiple hazards the most prominent among which are earthquakes, extreme winter conditions, landslide avalanches, flood as well as drought and sand storms threaten the Afghan population in 30 out 34 provinces of the country.

Establishment of Department of Environmental Protection and Disaster Management at the Kabul University was one of the biggest achievements in the country, while Parliament passed the Disaster Management Law (DML) in 2012, Strategic National Action Plan (SNAP), National Mitigation Policy, National level five years Disaster Management Plan, Sectoral Disaster Management plans and some SOPs were also prepared under the institutional leadership of ANDMA to guide the Disaster Management processes in more robust and systematic way.

There are main gaps exist in the present form of disaster management in the country in following areas

Awareness and Preparedness was very low.

No strong institutional set for Early Warning System in the country.

Lack of donor attention to Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and resilience as other major humanitarian issues were front runner for donor attention.

Disaster management could not capture the inclusiveness to address the vulnerable community very appropriately.

There is no instrumentation and mechanism for disaster risk communication and data gathering for informed decision making.

Low institutional capacity and coordination among different government line ministries.

It have paved to way to reorient complete process and strategy of Disaster Management in the country to respond appropriate need of preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery. It also highlighted the needs to define the strategic position of ANDMA for five years (2015-2019) in area of disaster management. The main components for strategic positioning of ANDMA

Component 1: Establishment of National Disaster Management Information System (NDMIS) and establishment of Comprehensive Early Warning System for at risk communities to cope and understanding the disaster risk of Nation and Communities.

Component 2: Strengthening the legislation and institutional mechanism at all level of Governance for effective Disaster Management System.

Component 3: Integration of DRM, CCA concepts and Community Resilience in Development agenda of the country. Comprehensive Risk Reduction measures including community based framework for risk reduction.

Component 4: Strengthening Disaster Preparedness Response and Recovery in Afghanistan in line with the principle of building back better.

Component 5: Knowledge, innovation and education to built “Culture of Safety” and resilience at all level through appropriate capacity development measures.